November 28

Prayer: 
Dare us to your hope.
The hope you declare, one counter to all we believe, know or think we understand.
Help us to see our places of aggression, wants beyond our needs in this time.
Remind us that it has been declared,
“They’ll trade in their swords for shovels, 
their spears for rakes and hoes. 
Nations will quit fighting each other, 
quit learning how to kill one another. 
Each man will sit under his own shade tree, 
each woman in safety will tend her own garden. 
GOD-of-the-Angel-Armies says so, and he means what he says.” 
That we may desire to see the coming of Your shalom,
even as it demands that our places of peace be shown for what they are,
places of comfort and privilege.
Make us uncomfortable as we hope for you.
Amen

Reading: Micah 4:1-5a

Reflection: Privilege and comfort are words we do not often stop to dwell on. In considering Micah 4:1-5, we are privileged, not necessarily in our gender or ethnicity but in our relationship with Christ. We are privileged to know what generations hoped for, the coming of their Messiah. We live in that privileged and the privilege it is to share in the work of shalom brought to Earth all those years ago as we hope for the return of our Messiah.

Application: Consider fasting from your morning coffee or lunch for today and tomorrow or another two days in this week. Set that money aside and use it at a time in this month to take out someone with whom you have daily interaction with and do not know well or a person with whom you have a strained relationship. It may seem inconsequential or you may even that you’d be able to afford to pay for them in addition to your costs but the purpose is changing our intention as we direct our intention at our Savior who came into our lives when he could have done it with all the comforts of His position and forfeit them all.

The purpose of this act of fasting and feasting is to reframe how we relate around food. If we look at scripture, Jesus is often seen feasting with those who were on the margins of society. You might know of someone in the margins by technical terms, you may not, but consider those who are new to your community or on the margins by other definitions.

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